"The Dogs of the Dow strategy is one where investors select the ten stocks that have the highest dividend yield from the stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA) after the close of business on the last trading day of the year. Once the ten stocks are determined, an investor invests an equal dollar amount in each of the ten stocks and holds them for the entire next year. The popularity of the strategy is its singular focus on dividend yield."

Prepared by Lorimer Wilson, editor of munKNEE.com - Your KEY To Making Money!

[Editor's Note: This version* of the original article by David I. Templetonhas been edited ([ ]), restructured and abridged (?) by 32% for a FASTER - and easier - read. Templeton is receiving compensation from Seeking Alpha for pageviews of his original unedited article as posted there so please refer to it for more detail. Please note: This complete paragraph must be included in any re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.]

"…The Dogs of the Dow ended up generating a slightly positive total return of .02% for 2018. This compares to a loss of 3.74% for the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) and a loss of 4.56% for the SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) as displayed in the below table.

Both Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) were the top performing Dow Dogs and the top performing stocks in the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average Index for 2018 as well.

As the new year begins, one new member joins the Dogs of the Dow for 2019. Entering the Dow Dogs in the coming year is JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) with a dividend yield of 3.28%. Dropping out of the Dogs is General Electric (NYSE:GE) not only because of its lower yield, but GE was removed from the Dow Jones Index last year."

(*The author's views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.)

Investing in the Dogs of the Dow, which refers to the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the end of the year, is a very simple strategy you can use in 2018 to beat the market. Here's everything you need to know.

While relatively few stock investment strategies stand the test of time, the Dogs of the Dow has a very good track record at beating the market. Plus, there aren't many strategies as easy for you to execute as buying and holding ten blue-chip stocks that pay attractive dividends while waiting for price appreciation.

The "Dogs of the Dow" is a widely-known passive investment strategy that says to simply buy the 10 highest yielding Dow 30 stocks at the start of each year. Below is a look at how 2013's Dogs of the Dow have fared thus far. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

The average YTD total return through July 1, 2016, of the ten 2016 Dogs of the Dow equals 15.4%…compared to the Dow SPDR (NYSEARCA:DIA) and S&P 500 SPDR (NYSEARCA:SPY) returns of 4.4% and 4.0%, respectively.